Thoughts in War

Thoughts in War, reprinted in the Neue Rundschau, November 1914

Thoughts in War is an essay by Thomas Mann . The text was written immediately after the outbreak of World War I and was first published in November 1914 in the Neue Rundschau magazine. The author celebrates the war as liberation. He describes Germany as a country of culture that has to assert itself in the fight against western civilization .

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In the only 14-page essay Thomas Mann tries to show that the war between Germany and France was due to a deeper, cultural contradiction.

Civilization and culture

The juxtaposition of civilization and culture forms the starting point of his considerations. The author sees fundamental opposites in these terms. According to his definition, they are a manifestation of the “contradiction between spirit and nature”.

Mann sees these principles embodied in Voltaire and Frederick the Great, for example . Voltaire stands for the Enlightenment , for reason, spirit, civil morality and everything civil, i.e. for civilization. Friedrich, on the other hand, for the demonic, the genius, the heroic fulfillment of duty and the soldier; in short: for culture.

As already indicated in the comparison between Voltaire and Friedrich, the author identifies France with the concept of civilization, while Germany with culture. For him, war is therefore also a conflict between these two principles.

The war as liberation

Although, in Thomas Mann's opinion, Germany did not want war, it is now emphatically welcomed as "liberation" and "purification". Above all, the “hearts of the poets” were “immediately on fire”. Because they felt more than others that the world of peace as a whole had suffered from the "decomposing substances of civilization".

The poets are less concerned with victory and conquest than with “war itself”. Associated with him is the “enthusiastic union of the nation” and the common “readiness for deepest examination”. Only in the war would Germany's “whole virtue and beauty” unfold.

The role of France

France, on the other hand, is falling into "rabies and shameful hysteria" as a result of the war, unlike Germany. It is guilty of various war crimes , using inadmissible projectiles, disgracing the wounded and murdering German doctors.

In all of this, France is said to be “not very masculine”. For half a century the French had demanded “revenge” with a view to Germany and were now shouting for help for “civilization” as German cannons were bombarding Reims . At the same time, they stressed that it was wrong to raise a hand against France. The French are thus claiming “women's rights” for themselves.

At the same time, as Mann continues to criticize, the Western powers wanted to “educate” Germany with this war. The goal is a kind of "forced civilization" of Germany. It is believed that England and France are fighting for the cause of democracy and that a defeat of Germany would lead to a revolution against the Hohenzollern.

classification

Thomas Mann in the 1920s

Thomas Mann was 39 years old when the war broke out and, like millions of others, was at first gripped by a general enthusiasm for the war. The 14-page essay Thoughts in War was his first political paper.

Mann placed himself among a number of authors such as Hugo von Hofmannsthal , Gerhart Hauptmann or Richard Dehmel , who transfigured the war into an intellectual and cultural conflict.

It caused consternation among many friends. Above all, his attitude came into sharp contrast to his pacifist brother Heinrich Mann , who accused him of accepting “misery and death of the peoples” for his intellectual hobbies.

Thomas Mann came under pressure to justify itself. In his major essay, Observations of a Apolitical , published four years later (1918), he largely stuck to his stance, but argued in a more nuanced way and also looked back at the thoughts of the war in relative terms .

Title page of the anthology Friedrich and the grand coalition . Photo: H.-P. Haack

He did not make a new assessment until 1922 in his speech Von deutscher Republik . In it he finally made a clear commitment to democracy .

It is also significant that Mann had his essay published only once: in 1915 in his collection of writings, Friedrich and the grand coalition . Here, however, the text appeared in a shortened and softened version. The post-war editions of this collection no longer contained the essay. It was also no longer reprinted during the author's lifetime.

Quotes

• How the hearts of the poets were in flames when the war broke out!
• The Germans are nowhere near as in love with the word "civilization" as their western neighbors; they neither waggle it around in a French-renowned manner, nor use it in an English-bigoted manner. You have always preferred "culture" as a word and a term.
• Why, above all, is Germany's victory unquestionable? Because history is not there to crown ignorance and error with victory.

Web links

• Thomas Mann: Thoughts in War. In: The New Rundschau. Volume 25, 1914, pp. 1471-1484. Under: Internet Archive .

literature

• Wilhelm Herzog : The overestimation of art. Against “Thoughts at War”. In: The forum. Volume 1, No. 9, 1914, pp. 445–458.
• Manfred Görtemaker : Thomas Mann and politics. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005.
• Philipp Gut : Thomas Mann's idea of ​​a German culture. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2008.
• Stephan Stachorski: Thoughts in War (1914). In: Andreas Blödorn and Friedhelm Marx (eds.): Thomas Mann. Manual. Life - work - effect. Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart 2015, p. 155f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter Czoik: Thomas Mann: Thoughts in War. Under: Literature Portal Bavaria.
2. ↑ Thomas Mann: Thoughts in War. In: New Rundschau. Volume 25, 1914, p. 1471.
3. ↑ Thomas Mann: Thoughts in War. In: New Rundschau. Volume 25, 1914, p. 1476.
4. ↑ Thomas Mann: Thoughts in War. In: New Rundschau. Volume 25, 1914, pp. 1473f.
5. ↑ Thomas Mann: Thoughts in War. In: New Rundschau. Volume 25, 1914, p. 1479.
6. ↑ Thomas Mann: Thoughts in War. In: New Rundschau. Volume 25, 1914, pp. 1479ff.
7. ↑ Thomas Mann: Thoughts in War. In: New Rundschau. Volume 25, 1914, p. 1481.
8. ↑ Thomas Mann: Thoughts in War. In: New Rundschau. Volume 25, 1914, p. 1482.
9. ↑ Thomas Assheuer : War ennobles people. In: Zeit-Online. March 4, 2010.
10. ^ Frank Fechner: Thomas Mann and Democracy. Change and continuity of the writer's statements relevant to democracy. Berlin 1990.
11. ↑ Stephan Stachorski: Thoughts in War (1914). In: Andreas Blödorn and Friedhelm Marx (eds.): Thomas Mann. Manual. Life - work - effect. Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart 2015, p. 155f.